Your first place RedHawks head to the windswept plains of DeKalb to take on 4-11 NIU (0-3 in MAC, 4-1 at home). Huskies coming off 108-78 road loss to an OU team that shot 62%. It was the third time NIU has given up 100 points. They lost to DePaul by 40. They beat someone called the University of East-West. Against the Bobcats, Soph guard Quentin Jones had 25 points and 8 boards for NIU. He leads team in scoring and assists.
On the NIU notable alumni list:
Homer Simpson (Dan Castellanata)
PJ Fleck
Sebastian Maniscalco
Dinosaur discoverer Dr. Paul Serena
Veep’s Matt Walsh
Curious if Skaljac will be ready or if he still needs more time. Based on @Hoophawk30’s report, sounds like he might be ready for Kent St? Some guys started to look gassed at the end, and losing 25% of your bench rotation hurts.
On one hand it’s feels weird to expect us to dominate a second straight MAC opponent (on the road no less) like we just did with WMU, but on the other hand NIU is dreadful.
The 7:00 start time is EST, 6:00 in Dekalb. NIU is having a bad season, predictable as they lost 3 starters to power conference teams and the other 2 graduated. Their basketball program has been consistently lower level MAC and as a result, when NIU is looking for a home for all their non football sports the Missouri Valley Conference ( basketball is their featured sport) is not interested in NIU. It is still unknown where their non football sports will end up in 2006.
6-5 sophomore Quentin Jones averages 15.8ppg and in their blowout loss at OU Saturday he had 25 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists. 6-4 JR Quaran McPherson shoots 38.9% on threes and averages 14.3ppg over the last 4 games.
Miami has now won 5 games in a row, long winning streaks have never been something we are known for. I would guess we have not had a 6 game winning streak since Charlie Coles was in charge, but someone else can research that.
We are first in the MAC in scoring 83.5ppg, first in scoring margin +11.9, first in FG% 49.9, and first in 3 point shooting 40.4%.
Whenever there’s a guy who’s struggling to shoot in games and the coaches swear he’s a good practice shooter, they virtually never end up ever figuring it out. Byers is probably the first time I’ve ever seen it.